June 8-10, 2017: Former F.B.I. Director Calls Trump a Liar - Infrastructure Week Fizzles

 

6/8/17: Former F.B.I. Director Comey spends the day testifying in front of Congress. Five times he implies or refers to the president as a liar. He has detailed notes on their interactions. 

__________ 

Five times Comey implies or refers to the president as a liar.

__________ 

 

Asked why he kept such notes, when he never felt the need under Bush 43 or Obama, he says in respect to Trump: 

I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of the meeting so I thought it important to document. That combination of things [Trump’s request for loyalty, among others] I had never experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write it down in a very detailed way.

 

James Comey testifies under oath.

* 

SPEAKING LIARS, right-wing thinkers applaud newly-elected GOP member of the House of Representatives, Greg Gianforte. During a heated campaign, Gianforte body-slams a British reporter when the chap has the audacity to ask what the candidate thinks about healthcare. The attack never happened, Gianforte and his campaign manager claim. The story is “fake news.” 

A local Fox News reporter and other witnesses back up the victim’s claims. It’s not fake news.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: In July, Gianforte pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and agrees to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

By December 9, 2017, polls will show that 51% of Americans think Trump is not “honest.” Only 36% will think he is.

___ 

 

6/9/17: The delusional leader of the Free World wakes up in a chipper mood. Having watched Comey’s testimony, as filtered through Fox & Friends, Trump tweets, “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” 

In reality, it seems Comey was fired because the president wanted to kill the Russian investigation. 

Obstruction of justice comes to mind. So say articles in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The Hill, Time, National Review, and stories on CNN, NBC and even BBC News.

___ 

 

6/10/17: “Infrastructure Week,” proclaimed on June 6, draws to a close. Since no one seems to notice, the president’s only tweet of the day tries to draw attention. With nothing better to do on a lazy Saturday, he pulls out his trusty iPhone: “America is going to build again. Under budget and ahead of schedule. Time to put #AmericaFirst! #Infrastructure-Week…” 

No one cares, because the president can’t stay on message long enough to get his plans across to the American people. It’s like having a gerbil in the Oval Office. It doesn’t help that the infrastructure plan has not actually been released. Finally, it doesn’t help to know that fiscal hawks in Congress are as excited about spending $1 trillion on anything as they would be about contracting Zika.

July 7, 2017: President Trump Cozies Up with Authoritarians

 

7/7/17: Trump is in Germany for the G-20 summit. In Poland, the day before, he gave the best speech ever given by an American president, according to Trump. Because he cares so much about freedom, he decided not to criticize the Polish government which has been subverting an independent judiciary, cracking down on journalists, and making “unwanted protests” (protests the government doesn’t like) illegal. 

__________ 

Trump “grills” Vladimir Putin on election interference.

__________ 

 

These are all ideas the 45^th President of the United States can get behind. 

Together Trump and Poland’s leader, Andrzej Duda, commiserate on the woes of dealing with media outlets that won’t be cowed. Trump sends Mr. Duda a romantic tweet: “We will fight the #Fake news together!” 

Oddly enough, Trump’s speech was all about upholding democratic values: 

The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

 

 

Now, in Hamburg, he meets with Putin. Apparently, the two would-be dictators hit it off great. Trump does, however, “grill” the Russian leader on the “fake” Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

He later provides reporters with a blow-by-blow description of how he held Putin’s feet to an Art of the Deal fire: 

“I said to him, ‘Were you involved in the meddling with the election?’ he recalled. “He said, ‘Absolutely not. I was not involved.’ He was very strong on it. I then said to him, in a totally different way, ‘Were you involved with the meddling?’ He said, ‘I was not—absolutely not.’”

 

Problem solved. No more Russians jumping on the bed! (Or hiding underneath. Or snuggling up with you under the covers.) Special Counsel Robert Mueller can pack it up and go home. (See: 7/8-10/17.)

Putin tells Trump he did not meddle. Trump believes him!

July 21-23, 2017: President Trump Drops the P-Word

 

7/21/17: For those of us who enjoy mocking the Trump administration this is a black day. Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who often left reporters and those watching on TV in stunned disbelief, resigns. According to friends “Spicey” wearied of insults hurled by the president. 

His replacement, Anthony Scaramucci, explains the president’s real problem to reporters. He’s “doing a phenomenal job,” Scaramucci insists, “and we just need to get it out there a little more aggressively.” 

No problem. Scaramucci, “The Mooch,” is on the job!  

Meanwhile, Federal Aviation Administration records indicate Trump is planning on spending August 3-20 at his home/golf course in Bedminster. As for Congress, he still thinks legislators should remain in session and get a healthcare bill on his desk quick. (See: 7/21/17.) 

Can Congress just mail the bill to Bedminster?

___ 

 

7/22/17: The president rolls out of bed just after 5:30 a.m. in his Wonder Woman pajamas and gets down to the business of governing! He warms up by attacking The New York Times and Washington Post in a tweet. 

Why do these papers keep insisting the Russian investigation matters! (See pretty much everything above: 7/8-14/17, etc.)

At 6:35 he gets to the meat of the matter. No one in his administration has ever seen a Russian, touched a Russian, talked to a Russian, heard a Russian offer to fatten a bank account, or smelled a Russian fart. But if they did – are you listening Don Jr. and Jared – don’t worry. 

Trump tweets: “While all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS.” 

The pardon power, yeah, why would anyone think about that?

___ 

 

7/23/17: Another Sunday tweetstorm brews up in Trumpistan. Rap, tap, tap, go the presidential digits on the keys to his iPhone: “As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians.” 

“It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President [emphasis added]”  

Fortunately, there’s real news to report – that is, any news that makes Orange Leader feel good, even when he looks in a mirror and realizes his hair makes it seem like he has a dead fox sitting atop his cranium. Tappity-tap-tap: “Thank you to @LOUDOBBS for giving the first six months of the Trump Administration an A+. S.C.,reg cutting,Stock M, jobs,border etc. = TRUE!” 

January 25, 2108: The New York Times Reports - President Trump Wanted to Fire Robert Mueller

 

1/25/18: The New York Times reports that the president wanted to fire Robert Mueller last summer. This makes Sean Hannity furious. On his nightly show he calls the story “Fake News.” His sources cannot confirm the Times story. Boy does that piss Hannity off! He warns loyal Fox News fans the Times is “trying to distract you.” Trump would never think of firing….wait….what? 

Hannity is informed that, yes, Fox sources are confirming the story. What can a right-wing shill do in this situation? 

Hannity cuts to a car chase.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: For two years, President Trump stalls investigators in every way imaginable. That includes ignoring Congressional subpoenas and forbidding, for example, White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn from appearing before Congress to testify. This works until he leaves office. When McGahn appears, in June 2021, he tells lawmakers he repeatedly warned Trump. If he fired Mueller, it might constitute obstruction of justice. When the president kept pushing him to do so, McGahn said he knew he had to be prepared to resign. 

“It was the feeling of being trapped and being felt that I was being pushed to do something that was really not in the best interests of the president, in addition to my own concerns about my role,” McGahn said. “And I felt, at that point, you have to be prepared to walk away, particularly as a lawyer, in certain situations.”

 

McGahn also confirmed an incident cited in the Mueller Report. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed the special counsel, Trump responded angrily, “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency.” 

(For a bit more context, the full reaction was: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”) 

McGahn bolstered several of the main contentions laid out by Robert Mueller and his team of investigators – and had he been allowed to testify earlier, might have sunk the president’s leaky boat. 

You might be able to twist the McGahn testimony to make it sound less damning, assuming you loved Trump more than chocolate sauce. 

He was basically confirming: 

A.      Trump did want to obstruct justice. He repeatedly asked to have Mueller fired. 

B.      McGahn didn’t want to have any part in firing Mueller, in part because he realized he might be subject to a felony charge of obstruction of justice if he carried out Trump’s orders. 

C.     Trump did explode when Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Mueller. 

D.     It worried McGahn (he testified further) when Trump started trying to remove Sessions. 

E.      That would be more obstruction of justice. 

F.      Trump lied, McGahn said, when he denied the accuracy of a report that Trump wanted to fire Mueller. 

G.     McGahn told lawmakers he was the source for that story. (See “A,” above.) 

H.    The “Fake News” wasn’t fake at all.

 

Trump’s exact words, when reporters asked him, on January 26, 2018, if he had ever tried to have Mueller fired, were, It’s “fake news, folks, fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories.”

March 21, 2018: Trump Kisses Up to Putin

 

3/21/18: President Trump makes time in his busy schedule to call Shirtless Strongman Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on winning reelection, in a contest in which leading opposition choices were barred from running.

 

Donald

 

♥’s

 

Vladimir

 

 

Yes, indeed. The President of the United States congratulated the man accused of ordering spies to use a nerve agent in an attempted assassination on British soil. Putin is the same leader who unleashes Russian mercenary forces in Syria, which led recently to a bloody confrontation with U.S. troops and allied forces. 

(Luckily, U.S. forces called in air strikes and managed to kill as many as 500 Russians and Syrians with no loss of life on our side. 

Trump to Putin: "I can't quit you."

Senator John McCain responds: 

[An] American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections [emphasis added, here and below]. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.

 

Later, Pinocchio Sanders admits that Trump did not mention Russian meddling in the 2016 election during his call. 

Apparently, he and Vlad talked about March Madness. And office pools. Putin is picking Trump University to win it all.

 

* 

WHEN IT COMES to dictators and autocrats the current occupant of the White House has a soft spot for anyone who takes the law into his or her own hands. Trump has commended Egypt’s brutal president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, known for killing 800 protesters in a single day and jailing tens of thousands of dissidents, for doing “a fantastic job.” Trump also told reporters President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was doing “an unbelievable job on the drug problem” in his country when that “job” involved the extra-judicial murder of more than 12,000 Filipinos. 

In fact, when Trump visited Manila he laughed along with Duterte when the latter referred to reporters as “spies.” 

Now, scumbag leaders are following his lead. According to Reuters, Duterte recently closed down one news site, calling it “a fake news outlet” that had been “throwing trash and shit all along.” 

____________________ 

“Fake news is like poison or a gun and it can kill our beautiful society.” 

Cambodian official

____________________ 

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia also cited Trump’s attacks on “fake news” to justify his decision to shut down an independent newspaper, the Cambodia Daily. The Daily had criticized his rule. 

Reuters explained: 

In his latest attack on Saturday, he backed Trump for announcing “fake news” awards. “I think President Donald Trump has correctly created an award that he just announced in recent days, the Fake News Award,” he said. “And in Cambodia there is also this type of media.”

 

One Cambodian government official defended such tactics: “Everyone, including ordinary citizens, has to fight against fake news because fake news is like poison or a gun and it can kill our beautiful society.” 

Speaking of poison: Did you know Putin allegedly has a hit list? Sergei Skripal, a recent victim in England, made that list. 

Guess who else Vladimir wants to murder? Christopher Steele: the guy behind the Steele dossier, the file that hints at all kinds of perverse links between Trump, Trump aides, and assorted Russians.

April 3, 2018: Speaking of "Fake News..."

 

4/3/18: Speaking of “Fake News,” let’s see how the stock market is doing. If the market is up Trump and loyal Trumpsters claim all credit is due him. When the market was down in the past – for stretches under Obama – it was always the fault of the black guy in the White House. 

 

Not as good as the 32.5% rise under Obama. 

Consider a few Trump tweets: 

Nov 7, 2012: The stock market and US dollar are both plunging today. Welcome to @BarackObama’s second term. 

 

If the market goes up, and you aren’t even president, but you’re a candidate, then all credit to you: 

Jun 28, 2016: @arnold_ziffel: @AnnCoulter also can’t help but notice the stock market’s reaction as @realDonaldTrump was speaking. #UPUPUP

 

Once Trump wins election and has his presidential index finger on the Twitter button, the tweets begin to flow. Trump is a stock market hero! 

Feb 16, 2017: Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout!

 

Aug 3, 2017: Business is looking better than ever with business enthusiasm at record levels. Stock Market at an all-time high. That doesn’t just happen!

 

Nov 29, 2017: Looks like another great day for the Stock Market. Consumer Confidence is at Record High. I guess somebody likes me (my policies)! 

 

In the next tweet, Trump appears to be quoting a fan, but doesn’t identify who that might be: 

Jan 14, 2018: “President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that we’ve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...

 

“All Trump, not 0 [sic],” apparently means, any rise in the Dow is due to Trump, whereas Obama never helped the markets at all. 

So, let’s recap. When stocks go up, Trump gets credit. And Obama was terrible for stocks.

 

This is easy to check. The Dow Jones closed at 8,281 on January 16, 2009, the last trading day before Obama took office. By then, the market had plunged nearly six thousand points, from a high in 2007 (14,164). This left Mr. Obama to deal with a real mess, dwarfing the imaginary mess Trump says he inherited. 

The Dow bottomed out at 6,547 in March, having lost more than half its value. 

Under Mr. Obama the market quickly (and thankfully) recovered, ending 2009 at 10,428. That would represent a gain, from Inauguration Day 2009 to New Years’ Eve 2009, of 25.9%. 

By April 5, 2010 (the first trading day after Easter weekend), the Dow stood at 10,974. Starting from Inauguration Day to April Fools’ Day, the market had risen a shade under 32.5%.

 

Of course, conservatives never give Obama credit if they can avoid it. As mentioned, they like to claim that all the gains from the moment Trump was elected should be chalked up to Trump and the “optimism” he brings to the market. Suppose a gracious liberal (such as this blogger) gives Trump and Trump fans that break – credits our current president with all gains from November 8, 2016, when the market closed at 18,333 – and computes stock increases from that point. 

The Dow finished today at 24,033. 

That means the market is up 31.1%, giving Trump the best starting point and more than three extra months to pump up the gains. 

It’s not as good as the 32.5% rise under Obama, to the same point in his first term, but it’s good.

 

* 

THE PRESIDENT of the United States continues his assault on the First Amendment. He starts this day at 5:38 a.m., tweet-bitching again:  

The Fake News Networks, those that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast. The “Fakers” at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS have done so much dishonest reporting that they should only be allowed to get awards for fiction! 

 

Trump caps his attacks during a press conference with leaders of three Baltic republics later the same day. Keep in mind: Those three nations spent fifty years under the iron hand of the Soviet Union. In that half century their people never enjoyed a single day of press freedom. 

Once again, the President of the United States mocks the American free press, telling the president of Latvia to pick a “Baltic reporter” to ask a question. 

“Pick a reporter, please,” Trump says to Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis. “A Baltic reporter ideally. Real news, not fake news.”

June 26, 2018: The President Twists a Tale to Suit His Narrative

 

6/26/18: If you study Donald J. Trump’s Twitter feed you know he’s worried about the Russia probe. Trump’s first tweet yesterday came at 6:28 a.m., and seemed to hint that the F.B.I. and Obama and Cotton Mather were all out to get him – that the witch hunt was strong all along. 

If you read the story, it doesn’t bolster his position. 

“Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that President Trump is probably correct that there was surveillance on Trump Tower,” he claimed. “Actually, far greater than would ever have been believed!”  

There would be seventeen more tweets before the day ended. But I thought this one was a surprise. Had Mukasey just weighed in on Trump’s “witch hunt” theory and supported him, too? 

I decided to check. Apparently, Trump was dredging up any argument he could, in this case citing a story from March 2017. If you read the story, however, it doesn’t bolster his position. If there was F.B.I. surveillance of Trump Tower, Mukasey told ABC News, “It means there must have been a basis to believe that somebody in Trump Tower may have been acting as an agent of the Russians [emphasis added], for whatever purpose – not necessarily the election – but for some purpose.” 

Mukasey told reporters that the F.B.I. would have been doing what it always did in these kinds of situations: “They keep track of people who act as agents of the Chinese, the Russians, the Israelis, everybody.” 

In other words, Trump is trying to build support for the idea that he is the victim of a witch hunt, using the testimony of a former Attorney General who says, quite clearly, that there is no witch hunt. (See: 7/7/18.)

 

* 

TAMPA BAY Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston is suspended for three games for grabbing the crotch of a female UBER driver. 

Finally, an NFL player Trump can respect.

September 6, 2018: Who Wrote the Anonymous New York Times Editorial?

 

9/6/18: We know the president insists the dishonest media employs made up sources to attack him. 

As the sun rises over Washington, I think we can assume the president will be calm and the mood at the White House will be “business as usual, let’s just keep on making America great.” Because the scathing editorial in The New York Times on September 5 was just “Fake News.”

Okay, maybe not.

 

Was the writer this guy: Vice President Mike Pence?

 

Stuck in hell with a flaming Donald J. Trump by his side. 

Trump is reportedly in a rage. His temper is “volcanic.” There’s pandemonium at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

There is talk among aides of hitching up everyone in the White House to lie detectors, only excluding Ivanka. 

The hunt for the person who talked to the Times is on and the president is said to have a list of a dozen prime suspects. 

As the hours pass the denials pile up. “I didn’t write it,” Vice President Jesus is first to say. We know that man cannot tell a lie, because if he does, he fears he will burn in hell for eternity and be stuck spending untold centuries with a flaming Donald J. Trump by his side.  “Not mine,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells reporters. He’s traveling in India and it has to be embarrassing to have to address the topic. Defense Secretary Mattis is innocent. A Pentagon spokesperson says, “It was not his op-ed.” Attorney General Sessions says, through a spokesman, he didn’t write it. 

In his heart you figure he wishes he had.

 

By evening at least 24 cabinet members, ambassadors, and top administration officials have insisted they never put pen to paper. Even Melania issues a statement, saying the author of the piece is “sabotaging” the country. 

Pundits spend the day weighing possibilities. Who wrote it? Should the author have come out publicly? Is this “gutless” and “shameful” behavior? Is the writer a “quiet hero” sounding an alarm? 

The initial betting, even on Las Vegas betting sites, is that the anonymous author is really Mike Pence. The writer has used the word “lodestar,” a word the vice president often uses in speeches. 

 

“The president’s amorality.” 

Another expert points to a key passage: 

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

 

The phrase “not moored” seems to hint that the writer is comfortable with nautical terms, perhaps someone who served in the Navy. 

Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former Marine??? 

Still, the bottom line is obvious. Someone at the top of the administration thinks the man in charge is a pyromaniac.

 

(In the days leading up to the 2020 election, Miles Taylor, a young official in the Department of Homeland Security and a Trump appointee, reveals himself to be the author. 

Like John Bolton, Trump’s by-that-time former National Security Advisor, Taylor says he will not be voting for Trump for president again.)

June 28, 2019: President Trump Disgraces Himself on the World Stage

 

6/28/19: Once again, President Trump steps onto the world stage and disgraces himself, this time repeatedly. At the G-20 Summit in Osaka he sits down for breakfast with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and helps burnish the prince’s image. Trump describes MBS him as “a friend of mine.” Speaking to a group of Saudi men seated across the table, Trump describes the prince as a man who has “opened up things…especially what you’ve done for women.” 

Our president has been watching what is happening in Saudi Arabia. It’s a “revolution,” but “in a very positive way.”

Trump gets along well with murderous leaders.

 

“I want to thank you,” the president continues, as reporters and TV crews look on. “You’ve done a really spectacular job,” he tells bin Salman. And, oh, the meetings they’ve had! “They’ve been terrific!” Saudi Arabia – boy, the president says – they buy U.S. military equipment, “the best in the world,” and those purchases, he claims, “create a million jobs” in the U.S.A. 

There are only a few problems with Trump’s take: 

1.     Saudi women may not apply for passports without permission from male relatives. 

2.     Child marriages and arranged marriages are the rule. 

3.     Husbands can unilaterally divorce wives. 

4.     A woman was recently stoned to death for adultery. 

5.     The Crown Prince has instituted a crackdown on “dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics [emphasis added],” often accusing critics of treason. 

6.     Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of MBS, a permanent resident of the United States, with children who are U.S. citizens, was brutally murdered by Saudi agents last year. 

7.     Trump makes jobs numbers up. In March 2018 he claimed Saudi arms sales would create 40,000 jobs in the U.S. That didn’t impress. He upped his claim to 450,000, to 500,000, then 600,000. 

8.     Finally, he decided a round million sounded right. 

 

“You don’t have the problem in Russia.” 

The disgrace only grows worse. During a photo opportunity with Putin, Trump looks at the reporters filling the room and jokingly says to the murderous Russian autocrat, “Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it. You don’t have the problem in Russia. We have it; you don’t have it.” 

“Yes, yes, we have it,” Putin responded. “The same.” 

Only, they don’t. In Russia, critics get bludgeoned, strangled, stabbed, gassed, hanged, gunned down, thrown off balconies, poisoned, and tortured and killed while in police custody.

 

Soon after, a reporter asks Trump if he has told the Russian Killer not to interfere in the next U.S. election. Trump has already said he’d be willing to take foreign help in 2020. He laughs off the question. 

Here’s how the Associated Press describes the scene: 

“Of course,” the president replied.

 

Then he turned to Putin and facetiously said, “Don’t meddle in the election.” He playfully repeated the request while pointing at Putin, who laughed. 

For a handy refresher, here’s what the Mueller Report says:

  

* 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC notes that Europe has experienced five “500-year” summers since 2003. Now 2019 may make six. In other words, the continent’s six hottest summers in five centuries, have all come in the last fifteen years. 

New heat records have been set this month in France, Germany, Poland, and Spain, with temperatures easily topping 100° F across a continent where air conditioning is rare. 

According to scientists, melting Arctic ice and a general warming in the far northern regions are affecting jet stream currents that have always moved cooler polar air across the Northern Hemisphere. 

These extreme heat events are all connected to a slower jet stream that locks weather systems into place, says Michael Mann of Penn State University. Mann co-authored a study last year that linked the slowdown in the jet stream – the band of high-altitude winds that sweep around the globe from west to east – to last summer’s unprecedented droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding events across the entire Northern Hemisphere. And it is likely behind India’s weak monsoon rains and the widespread flooding in the U.S. Midwest this year.

 

* 

THE DALI LAMA sums up his opinion of President Trump, telling BBC News, he thinks the man lacks a “moral compass.”